This is a 1950s Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 1578, 18K yellow gold case on a strap with an 18k gold tang buckle, manual wind Patek Philippe Caliber 27SC movement.
The opaline silver dial is double-signed Jost (German retailer) and is in excellent condition. The original enamel signature is raised and perfect. The Jost signature is rare on a Patek Philippe dial.
The hour markers are applied gold, with gold dauphine-shaped hands, and center sweep seconds hand. The case is embellished with fancy "spider" lugs. This is the only vintage Patek model, along with the chronograph version Ref 1579, with faceted lugs.
The movement is the ingenious Cal 27 SC (seconds centrale). Central second hands are usually driven indirectly off the minutes wheel using some additional components. This typical configuration adds to the thickness of the movement and causes some loss of torque. In designing Cal 27 SC, however, Patek Philippe avoided the drawbacks by stacking the relevant wheels on the same axis in the middle, establishing both directly driven seconds and minutes hands. Cal 27SC is a reliable and accurate workhorse that generates sufficient power to drive super expensive perpetual calendars Ref 2497 and 2438. This Patek Philippe wristwatch is a lot of watch for the money.
